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Development Environments

Installing WampServer

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  • 0:05
    [Installing WAMPServer with Addison Berry]
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    In this video, we're going to look at how to install
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    a local web development environment by setting up a web
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    server on your personal computer for Windows.
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    And in this instance are going to be using a product called WampServer.
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    It's free.
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    And what it does is it sets up Apache, MySQL,
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    and PHP on a personal Windows machine.
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    You can find WampServer wampserver.com.
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    And that's we're going to start our journey.
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    So the first thing we're going to need to do is download it.
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    So go to the download tab.
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    And that drops us down to that section of the page.
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    You see we have two versions, 32 bits or 64-bit.
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    So you pick the one that's appropriate for your computer.
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    And then I'll scroll down here just a little bit.
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    You can see we have this add-ons section.
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    And that allows me to change versions.
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    So if you look at the main download here,
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    underneath in teeny tiny text, it has the versions
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    that this download is going to give you.
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    So like PHP 5.3 something.
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    If I go down to that PHP section here,
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    I can pick another version if I don't want PHP 5.3.
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    If I want to also have PHP 5.2 because I
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    need to test between both versions.
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    So I can just go normally just pick the latest version
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    and click that and download that as well.
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    And then I would be able to toggle back and forth between those.
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    You can see, you can do this for Apache and MySQL, as well.
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    So I'm going to go ahead and download the actual server.
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    You get this form that you're supposed to fill out.
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    But you don't have to fill this form out.
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    If you read the text, which most people probably don't, you can just
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    download it directly with this link.
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    So I'm going to click that, rather than
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    giving someone my personal information.
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    And then of course this going to need to load.
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    And then it'll pop up with our download information.
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    One thing I want to point out real quickly
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    is only download from this pop up.
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    Don't click a download button on the screen that's
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    big and shiny and pretty because they're just
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    trying to get you to get other things.
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    So I'm going to click Save File from this
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    so that I can actually download the exe so that I can use it.
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    That will take a minute or two.
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    Once we have that downloaded, I can go ahead
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    and open that up to begin the installer.
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    It provides a little wizard.
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    We're going to walk through a couple of screens here.
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    It shows you also what you're installing.
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    So, we'll get started with this.
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    Agree to license agreement.
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    You should probably read it.
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    Nobody ever does.
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    Then you can pick where you want to actually have WAMP,
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    the server, all the stuff that is stored in your directory structure.
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    It wants to put in c: wamp.
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    It's a fine location for me.
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    But if you'd like to put it somewhere else,
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    you could change that here.
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    I'm not going to create icons but, again, personal choice.
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    Up to you.
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    And then click Next.
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    And we have just a summary of what we're doing,
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    click Install and let it install.
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    And that's going to take a little bit of time.
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    Maybe you'll do a little video fast forward here.
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    And you see we're almost done.
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    We get a pop up, though, saying it's detected Firefox.
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    And it just wants to know if we want to use that as the default browser
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    with our server.
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    I'm going to say yes.
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    Because I tend to use Firefox for most everything.
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    And then it also is letting me know, Windows is going beep beep,
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    that it's detecting HTTP server, which could be a problem,
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    asking if I want to make sure that I want
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    to use this and allow it to work.
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    So pretty much, is just give me a warning.
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    We want to just leave this at private networks.
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    That's fine.
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    I don't need this to connect to public networks.
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    I'm just working locally.
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    So when this comes up, you can just leave it at its defaults
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    and allow access.
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    And that's fine.
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    But it is going to warn you and you need
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    to allow access in order for it to work locally.
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    And now we are going to start filling some things out here.
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    This has to do with email, which I'm generally not worried about.
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    And it's just going to set up some basic information
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    about the email server that it's installing.
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    So again, the defaults here are totally fine.
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    We can just move on.
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    And that's the wizard.
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    And this check box for launching it was checked.
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    So it's going to fire up the WampServer.
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    Let me close some of this stuff out so we get rid of some of this noise
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    here.
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    Now, it started up.
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    You didn't see anything pop up.
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    But you'll notice down here in your bar
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    down here you'll see a little green w.
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    And that is WampServer.
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    And when it's green, that means it's running.
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    And if the icon down here in the panel goes away,
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    I always like to customize it so that the WampServer icon is always
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    there, so I always know whether it's up or on or off.
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    So I'm going to set that in my settings
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    there, so it doesn't keep disappearing on me.
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    And let's open it up.
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    And I'm going to click on Local host.
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    This is the root of the web server that's serving web pages.
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    WampServer has this index page with all this information
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    about the software that you have installed and the versions.
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    We have a link for PHP info.
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    So I can get more information about my PHP installation.
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    And diversions at the top there.
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    We also have phpMyAdmin installed.
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    So you come here, start working with your databases.
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    Notice that the address is local host slash phpMyAdmin.
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    So everything's going to start in the local host.
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    And everything kind of goes from there.
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    And we'll come back and look at some of this other stuff
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    here, in a second.
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    But this is sort of your main start page for WAMP.
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    So back in our menu here, you'll see that there is a phpMyAdmin link
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    that goes to the same place as the one we just clicked.
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    But this is an important thing, the www directory.
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    This is where all of your websites live.
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    So let's take a look and see where that actually
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    is in the file structure of your computer.
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    I'm going to go to C. We installed in C.
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    So WAMP is where the WAMP installation is.
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    You see there's a lot of stuff in here.
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    This is everything for the web server to run.
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    The folder that we're looking for here is the www.
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    That's where you put all the website files.
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    So we pop in here.
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    And you see there's some stuff in here that WAMP has already set up,
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    that index page that you have and such.
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    I'm going to show how to actually add
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    a new test to make sure this working.
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    I'm going to add a new website project
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    that I'm going to be working on, say.
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    I'll just call it my site.
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    I'll go into that folder.
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    And in here, this is where my website's going to live.
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    So I can put my HTML or PHP or whatever in here.
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    So I'm going to go ahead and just open up here real quickly.
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    Notepad ++ I'm just going to create a very simple file called welcome
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    to my site, text file, not even putting HTML in there.
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    And then I'm going to save it in here.
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    Just make sure you don't save it as a .txt file.
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    You need to actually have it end with HTML
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    if it's HTML or PHP if it's PHP.
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    Windows can be a little funny about that.
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    So index.html is the name of the file.
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    So simple text, index of HTML.
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    You can see that that's in here now, right,
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    wamp www my site folder, for this particular site.
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    I'm going to click on the index.
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    And you can see.
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    Here's the whole file path.
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    So it's just like opening any file on my computer.
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    It shows the entire file path from C down.
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    But it shows a file.
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    It's a text file.
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    Now if we go back to the web server, go back to my WAMP page here,
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    you see I have a list of my projects.
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    It lists all the folders in the www folder.
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    When I click link this time, I get the page.
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    It's loading in the browser.
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    But actually loading with the URL at a local host my site.
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    It's not just doing a file, opening a file.
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    So now the web server's working.
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    And this under my site, local host my site,
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    is going to be my development site that I'm working on.
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    OK so now we're going to go back to main and talk about some things
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    we didn't talk about before.
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    Start all services, stop all services.
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    This is how you start and stop the web server.
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    So I click Stop.
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    You notice it turns red.
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    The icon turns red.
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    And if I reload my web page that I was just viewing,
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    it is not able to connect because the web
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    server is not currently running.
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    In order for me to get back to it, I can
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    start all services, all services being Apache, MySQL.
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    It's restarted.
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    It turns green.
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    I know it's running.
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    And then the website works.
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    So that's just something else you really need to pay attention to,
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    whether you actually have it turned on, or not.
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    So this was a quick intro to WampServer, how to install it
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    and some basics of using it, getting a site folder set up.
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    In the next video, we're also going to look at how do then tweak some
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    of the configuration and settings, and get into some
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    of the other items that are in the WampServer menu.
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    So, happy developing.
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    And see you next time.

Installing Wampserver

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9 minutes 14 seconds // Drupal 7 // HDCC //

This video walks through the process of downloading and doing the initial configuration of WampServer, which is Apache, MySQL and PHP for Windows. It shows how to turn it on and off, as well as how to get files to show up from the localhost server.

Next up: WampServer Configuration.

Notes:
If after installing WAMP you get a 404 error, make sure the server is actually running. Navigate to wampserver > apache > service > install service... opens prompt, hit enter... wampserver icon turns green.

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More information on Development Environments

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